This week we will be taking a closer look at some of the subregional intergovernmental organizations and initiatives in Europe and Eurasia. The BIED Society already conducted a discussion on the structure and function of the European Union last semester. Click here to review that IAA forum thread: https://www.biedsociety.com/forum/european-union/the-pillars-of-europe-the-legacy-of-the-maastricht-treaty-after-25-years
The goal of this week is to highlight some of the lesser known organizational entities that bind European states to a common cause. Post your thoughts on the daily documents here.
CSTO is a security alliance successor to Warsaw Pact. The way I see it, Russia has concerns with terrorism, and so does China in a way. Since CSTO includes Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, etc., these are some of the same states that is part of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) that links Eurasia together. China has a nexus in security matters here for shared security concerns, and they could possibly branch out beyond terrorism for other political and security matters against the West. Article 4 is interesting to note an emphasis on democracy considering its authoritative members. This article is also probably what makes cooperation with China and others possible. Article 5 seems to be similar to ASEAN's non-interference. Article 7 & 8 seems to be functioning for infrastructure when the US helped out surrounding states around Russia with transporting and securing their nuclear materials back to Russia in the 90s. They sent lots of aid money to locate those nuclear materials, special transport trucks, and adequate storage facilities. My question is if China does BRI activity with them under Article 7, despite it stating a military focus. BRI does help with infrastructure after all, and some ports are dual-purposed with Chinese navy currently in other partner states. Article 13 and subsequent articles overall made the document surprisingly seem very democratic, with even a rotating leader from different member states. Article 16: Does the CSSC have a hiring quota of technocrats to pull from each member state to ensure fair distribution of power when it concerns intra relations for interactions? Article 18 and others stated it but not for CSSC specifically to my understanding? Article 19 is another surprise as I thought Russia wouldn't want states to get away from their power.